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Duck!
The latest asteroid to be discovered only hours before narrowly missing Earth is Asteroid 2007 EH, which passed between Earth and the moon yesterday, although, in NASA's favor, we were warned yesterday about Asteroid 2007 EK, which will pass between Earth and the moon tomorrow.
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/db?name=2007+EK
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/db?name=2007+EH
Holy... CRAP. Missed us... by THAT! MUCH!
Wow... .I'm looking at the tracks on these. They both wen't between the Earth and Moon.
Those aren't near misses, those are near collisions folks.
http://www.hohmanntransfer.com/h22/now.htmQuote:
Editor's note: As asteroids go, "small" is defined as having an absolute magnitude (brightness) calculated at greater than H=22.0, which converts very roughly to a diameter under 135 meters. No matter how close they come to the Earth, the astronomical community does not classify such objects as "potentially hazardous." However, as demonstrated by the mile wide (1.6 km.) Barringer Crater in Arizona, blasted out by a "small" asteroid some 50,000 years ago, there are asteroids too small to be labeled "potentially hazardous" that actually could cause severe local damage. These are sometimes called "Tunguska-class objects" (TCOs), after the 1908 event probably caused by a comet fragment or asteroid too small to be classified today as hazardous but packing enough wallop to flatten a Siberian forest area the size of a large city.
NEODyS in December 2005 changed its main Risk page to classify "Objects too small to result in heavy damage on the ground" as having "absolute magnitude > 25," which corresponds to perhaps 35 meters wide. And JPL two months earlier started flagging (with a blue background) risk-listed objects of "Estimated diameter 50 meters or less" as "not likely to cause significant damage in the event of an impact, although impact damage does depend heavily upon the specific (and usually unknown) physical properties of the object in question."
Small asteroids that come close enough to Earth to be seen have significant potential for scientific study today, and for exploration and exploitation in the future. They present a sampling of distant asteroid populations and a few may be remnants of the event that created the Earth-Moon system.
Some of these objects are discovered while close to Earth moving across the sky quite quickly, when they are called "FMOs" or "VFMOs" (very fast moving objects). The discovery and follow-up tracking of asteroids with H>22.0 represents some of the most difficult and very best observing work being done today by amateur and professional astronomers around the world, and the page you are reading is dedicated to recognizing their ongoing successes.
2007 EK (K07E00K) [ JPL Orbit Viewer | NEODyS object home | news | viewing | index | top ]
Size estimate: 4 meters per JPL H=29.53, MPC H=29.6
This object has been listed as an impact risk since 11 March 2007.
JPL classifies 2007 EK as an Apollo and calculates an Earth MOID of 0.001331 AU (0.52 LD),
and reports this object passes Earth at 0.7 lunar distances (LD) on 13 March 2007 at 0530 UT.
Observations are reported from the following observatories in MPECs 2007-E37, 2007-E50,
and 2007-E51:
Spacewatch 0.9m telescope [691]
2007-03-09 0510-0601, 3 pos. in MPEC 2007-E37, discovery (*)
Spacewatch 1.8m telescope [291]
2007-03-09 0849-0900, 3 pos. in MPEC 2007-E37, confirmation
2007-03-10 0539-0550, 3 pos. in MPEC 2007-E37, confirmation
Great Shefford Obs. [J95]
2007-03-10 0156-0226, 2 pos. in MPEC 2007-E37, confirmation
2007-03-11 0330-0337, 2 pos. in MPEC 2007-E50, follow-up (p)
2007-03-12 0155-0200, 3 pos. in MPEC 2007-E51, follow-up
Sabino Canyon Obs. [854]
2007-03-10 0757-0823, 3 pos. in MPEC 2007-E37, confirmation
Mt. John Obs. [474]
2007-03-10 1107-1123, 4 pos. in MPEC 2007-E37, confirmation (p)
KLENOT [246]
2007-03-11 2200-2202, 4 pos. in MPEC 2007-E51, follow-up (t)
2007 EH (K07E00H) [ JPL Orbit Viewer | NEODyS object home | news | viewing | index | top ]
Size estimate: 10 meters per JPL H=27.67, MPC H=27.6
JPL classifies 2007 EH as an Apollo and calculates an Earth MOID of 0.001155 AU (0.45 LD),
and reports this object passed Earth at 0.5 LD on 11 March 2007 at 0137 UT.
Lowell Observatory reports 2007 EH has significant MOIDs with planets Venus (0.03100 AU =
12.06 LD) and Mars (0.02269 AU = 8.83 LD).
Observations are reported from the following observatories in MPECs 2007-E34, 2007-E36,
and 2007-E50:
Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) [703]
2007-03-09 0531-0606, 4 pos. in MPEC 2007-E34, discovery (*)
2007-03-09 0912-0928, 4 pos. in MPEC 2007-E34, confirmation
Siding Spring Survey (SSS) [E12]
2007-03-09 1643-1655, 2 pos. in MPEC 2007-E36, follow-up
2007-03-10 1436-1440, 2 pos. in MPEC 2007-E50, follow-up
Great Shefford Obs. [J95]
2007-03-10 0103-0133, 6 pos. in MPEC 2007-E34, confirmation
2007-03-10 0311-0315, 3 pos. in MPEC 2007-E36, follow-up
2007-03-10 1916-1921, 4 pos. in MPEC 2007-E50, follow-up
2007-03-10 2132-2135, 3 pos. in MPEC 2007-E50, follow-up
2007-03-10 2323-2323, 1 pos. in MPEC 2007-E50, follow-up
2007-03-11 0044-0139, 13 pos. in MPEC 2007-E50, follow-up
Farra d'Isonzo Obs. [595]
2007-03-10 0143-0154, 3 pos. in MPEC 2007-E36, follow-up
CEAMIG-REA [I77]
2007-03-10 0153-0155, 3 pos. in MPEC 2007-E36, follow-up
2007-03-10 0457-0504, 3 pos. in MPEC 2007-E50, follow-up
Remanzacco Obs. [473]
2007-03-10 0156-0204, 2 pos. in MPEC 2007-E36, follow-up
Golden Hill Obs. [J77]
2007-03-11 0003-0008, 4 pos. in MPEC 2007-E50, follow-up